Rui opened his eyes. A bright blue sky assaulted his vision.
That didn't make sense.
Shouldn't he have been in the hospital?
He got up to his feet, taking in his surroundings.
He was in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere.
"Where am I?" He frowned.
He didn't know.
He turned around.
And what he saw shook him.
He saw a path.
A path he was standing on.
It extended far beyond the depths of his vision.
Who knew who far it went?
It was a path that elevated towards the heavens above, growing in height the further it extended.
It was a path no one else was on.
Yet it wasn't the path itself that drew his attention.
It was the that what the path went through!
Ferocious beasts of various shapes and sizes.
Earthquakes.
Volcanoes.
Tsunamis.
Meteorites.
The path winded right about treacherous monsters and calamities!
Who in their right mind would travel down this path?
Yet, as terrifying as it was.
It was equally beautiful.
It inspired fear.
Yet.
It also inspired awe.
The path called out to him. Lulling him. Whispering to him.
It was a path he wanted to walk down.
Yet the moment he took his first step...
The world cracked and shattered!
His eyes opened as he rose up abruptly, gasping for air.
He glanced around him as his eyes ran into a set of familiar faces.
"You guys..." Rui murmured as he gazed at Kane, Dalen and Milliana. His eyes danced around as he recognized the familiar visage of the medical wing.
('...A dream.') He realized, almost in disbelief.
It was so real.
Vivid.
What was that dream?
"You okay?" Kane asked with a concerned tone, as he noticed Rui's disorientation.
"...Feeling fine, actually." Rui replied as his senses grew more comfortable with reality. He shook his head, putting aside the dream. A dream was a dream.
He glanced to his side.
"Fae..." She was still unconscious.
"The doctors said both of you recovered fully and will be in perfect shape for tomorrow." Kane said.
Rui nodded as the fight between them flashed back to him.
He had revealed one of his trump cards. The Stinger. Now all of the elites of the Academy that he was to fight knew of this trump card and would be wary of it.
In the worst case, word of it might leak out to the fifteen candidates of the Martial Academies through certain channels in the Martial community.
('I'm getting too ahead of myself.') Rui shook his head. He hadn't even won the preliminary contest yet.
Thankfully, he had managed to preserve his final trump card; Blink.
He hadn't needed to use it. He simply lured Fae too close. He did this by ducking to and leaning back to avoid her Whirlpool impact, forcing her to enter extremely close quarters. By then, his foot was outside her peripheral vision, and all her attention was directed towards landing the Whirlpool attack on him.
Furthermore, he had shifted all of his weight on his left leg prior, meaning his right leg was free to move without any trouble at any time without any warning.
These three factors had allowed him to land the Stinger technique without her awareness. The technique was so swift she hadn't even realized it had struck her until it did, and she only comprehended what had happened a few moments later.
Then the pain, the fear and the shock had completely thrown her mind off-track and Rui was able to exploit a timely opening in her spatial awareness to land the final blow at the last moment.
Her Whirlpool attack stopped just a centimeter away from his face, it was truly too close. Thankfully the much greater range of the Stinger meant he could land the attack even if he was tilting away from her, which is why the Stinger had landed first. She was moving towards the Stinger, but he was moving away from her attack.
However, he hadn't been sure of his victory until he landed the final blow on her. Even if he managed to land a lethal and critical wound on her, so had she. He had even been bleeding longer, if she had simply kept her calm and composure, she might very well have been able to win the fight. At the very least he would have been forced to use Blink.
But that was not what had happened. Ultimately, she was not a robot. Intense emotions and sensations had clouded her judgement and caused a single poor decision which Rui had ruthlessly exploited.
All of this resulted in his victory.
"I guess I really did win." He murmured to himself as a feeling of elation rose in him. He had finally defeated Fae in a serious fight for the very first time. This was a goal he had had ever since she beat him in the Martial entrance exam.
He had an immense amount of respect for her. Defeating her was definitely a milestone he was proud of.
"Mmmmhh..." She groaned as her eyes opened. She blinked a few times, glancing around as realization dawned upon her.
"You okay...?" Milliana asked, concerned.
"Who won?"
"..."
"I see." She sighed. The fact that she could not remember anything after Rui had struck her was not a good sign, but she'd still hoped she hadn't lost.
She sighed, closing her eyes, trying to processing her loss.
With this, her chances of being chosen as representative were all but very low. Kane, Nel and Hever Mendelieve would need to lose atleast once. Rui would need to lose at the very least two times in his remaining matches for her to get back into the competition. If he lost only once, she would not be chosen, even if she won her remaining match, since if their scores were tied, he would be chosen because he beat her.
She open her eyes, exhaling. Turning to Rui, she smiled despite her disappointment.
"Great fight." She said, extending an arm. "You've truly come a long way."
"Thanks." Rui smiled. "You were incredibly strong, so much so that I could have easily lost that match."
